Skip to content
man bot

Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8157

Laundry machine operators

Laundry machine operators operate laundry, dry-cleaning, pressing and fabric treatment machines in laundries and dry-cleaning establishments. Tasks include - (a) sorting articles for cleaning according to the type, colour, fabric and cleaning treatment required; (b) placing sorted articles into receptacles and onto conveyor belts for moving to repair and cleaning areas; (c) checking and removing stains from garments, replacing buttons and making minor repairs; (d) loading and unloading washing machines, driers and extractors; (e) adding cleaning agents and starches to articles; (f) smoothing articles and guiding them through cleaning and pressing machines; (g) stopping and starting machines to untangle, straighten and remove articles; (h) placing articles on shelves and hanging articles for delivery and collection; (i) packaging articles and preparing orders for despatch. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Dry-cleaning machine operator - Laundry machine operator - Pressing machine operator (laundry) Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Hand launderer - 9121 - Hand presser - 9121

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 82 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • laundry worker
  • laundry workers supervisor

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

84.4
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 15.6 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 15.6 = 84.4

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

57.6
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

32.2
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 41.1 · hand skill 41.1 · cramped spaces 14.3 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 57.6 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 22.5, while the average is 15.6. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 22.5

    Packaging articles and preparing orders for despatch.

    Very Low
  2. 17

    Placing articles on shelves and hanging articles for delivery and collection

    Very Low
  3. 15.8

    Smoothing articles and guiding them through cleaning and pressing machines

    Very Low
  4. 15

    Adding cleaning agents and starches to articles

    Very Low
  5. 15

    Stopping and starting machines to untangle, straighten and remove articles

    Very Low
  6. 14.3

    Sorting articles for cleaning according to the type, colour, fabric and cleaning treatment required

    Very Low
  7. 13.8

    Placing sorted articles into receptacles and onto conveyor belts for moving to repair and cleaning areas

    Very Low
  8. 13.8

    Checking and removing stains from garments, replacing buttons and making minor repairs

    Very Low
  9. 13.8

    Loading and unloading washing machines, driers and extractors

    Very Low

9 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
43
AI does it for you
19

Helping wins by 24 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 8115

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80. This one is above that.